Lori A. Erickson, PhD, RN, MSN, CPNP-PC
CHAMP Clinical Program Manager; APRN Coordinator; Adjunct Graduate Faculty, University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Nursing and Health Studies
Full BiographySarah Edwards, DO
Associate Division Director of Clinic Care; Medical Director, Interdisciplinary Pediatric Feeding & Swallowing Program; Associate Professor of Pediatrics, University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine; Clinical Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, University of Kansas School of Medicine
Full BiographyDana Bakula, PhD
Child Psychologist; Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine
Full Biography
Lori Erickson, PhD, RN, MSN, CPNP-PC, Remote Health Solutions, Sarah Edwards, DO, Gastroenterology, and Dana Bakula, PhD, Gastroenterology, recently received a three-year, $349,346 grant from the Gerber Foundation.
Dr. Erickson and her team are using the funding on the project “Leveraging mHealth care model for pediatric enteral feeding tube weaning: CHAMP® For the Feeder.”
The project will implement the mobile health software platform known as CHAMP® App to help patients with feeding tubes transition from tube to oral feeding in their home, using remote monitoring.
This was designed to provide home monitoring for complex pediatric cardiology patients – primarily the single ventricle population. CHAMP App allows parents to share patient videos and home monitoring data such as heart rate, oxygen saturation, and feeding volumes to the child’s care team at the hospital. This allows children to be monitored from home instead of in the hospital. This software platform is designed to alert the healthcare team when there are concerns about how the child is doing, either based on the data entered or the family sending an alert about a concern.
Research shows that asynchronous home monitoring software platforms like CHAMP App improve survival outcomes, reduce malnutrition, and decrease episodes of morbidity, including fewer intensive care days.
The CHAMP App has now been adapted to be used in the Interdisciplinary Feeding and Swallowing Clinic at Children’s Mercy to support tube weaning. This grant will allow Dr. Erickson and her team to assess tube weaning success for children using CHAMP App compared to children who receive the current standard of care. Currently, the standard of care involves families receiving interdisciplinary tube weaning support through outpatient visits, and follow-up messages and calls, or without the support of an interdisciplinary team if they decide to attempt weaning independently.
“We hypothesize that this will greatly increase the speed with which patients can be weaned from tube feeding as compared to current standard practice. To test this hypothesis, we will study three separate areas,” explains Dr. Erickson.
The first aim of the project will be to compare how many patients using the CHAMP App are able to take 100 percent oral feeds relative to those who receive the current standard of care. The second aspect of the study will evaluate the parents’ and healthcare team’s experience with the use of CHAMP App. Parents will complete surveys and qualitative interviews related to their experiences using CHAMP App. Healthcare providers will be asked to compare the use of CHAMP home monitoring and its ease of implementation into clinic workflow as opposed to current standard practice.
Finally, the project will determine the effectiveness of the CHAMP App in improving contact time and engagement with the Interdisciplinary Feeding and Swallowing Clinic for infants who have met defined goals to be medically ready to wean.
“We foresee this study as a first step towards developing a new standard in the care of tube-feeding patients,” said Dr. Edwards.
Collaborators on the project include Dr. Erickson, Amy Ricketts, MSN, RN, CPNP-AC, Remote Health Solutions, Ryan Thompson, MS, Remote Health Solutions, Dr. Edwards, Dr. Bakula, Kristina Nash, MSN, APRN, CPNP-AC, Gastroenterology, Rachel Graham, MSN, RN, CPN, Gastroenterology, and April Escobar, MS, RN, CSP, LD, Nutrition Services.